Christmas the Muggle Way
by cleotheo
Summary: It's Hermione's first Christmas living at Malfoy Manor, and she's determined to do things the muggle way - whether Draco likes it or not. Fluffy Dramione Festive One-Shot.


Despite the fact she'd been part of the wizarding world since she was eleven years old, there were certain things Hermione Granger preferred to do the muggle way – and Christmas was one of them. While other people's decorations sprung up magically around the beginning of December, Hermione took the time to put hers up herself. There was nothing she liked better in early December than spending a cosy afternoon decorating her Christmas tree.

Even her recent marriage to Draco Malfoy, and the fact she was living in his ancestral home, hadn't changed her desire to have a traditional muggle Christmas. So while the rest of Malfoy Manor was magically decorated for Christmas and transformed into a magical winter wonderland, her and Draco's wing had remained undecorated until Hermione had roped her husband into helping her create their own winter wonderland.

"You do know the elves could have done all this in half the time," Draco grumbled as set up a large tree in the corner of the room he and Hermione used as a living room.

Despite the fact they lived at the manor, and had full access to the entire house, they still had their own private space in the wing which had been Draco's since he was a child. If they so desired they could spend their entire lives sequestered quite comfortably in their wing of the manor as it was pretty much a self contained house in-itself. However, while they both valued the privacy having their own wing provided them with, they also made use of the rest of the house and more often than not could be found mingling with Draco's parents.

"I've explained this, Draco," Hermione tutted from where she was sitting on the floor, checking through a box of decorations she'd brought with her when she'd moved into the manor six months earlier. "I like to do Christmas the muggle way."

"I get that, but why do I have to be involved?" Draco grouched. "I've never decorated a Christmas tree in my life."

"Then it's only fitting that your first time should be with your wife," Hermione said with a sweet smile. "I promise that you'll enjoy it if you let yourself."

"Fine," Draco huffed, knowing full well that Hermione would get her way as she usually did considering he found it very hard to say no to the witch he loved. "Where do we start?"

"The lights," Hermione announced, pulling a tangled string of lights from the bottom of the box. "We will have to use magic to get them to work," she admitted. In her old flat she'd had electricity to use things the muggle way, but Malfoy Manor was so old and so steeped in magic that it would be impossible to add electricity to the mix.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with these?" Draco questioned with a grimace as he took the lights from his wife. "They're all knotted."

"They tend to get like that," Hermione confessed with a shrug. "But if we go slow and steady, we can straighten them out. We just have to have patience."

"Or wands," Draco muttered, finding the end of the lights and starting to unwind them from there.

"No wands," Hermione insisted as she began to help Draco.

Ten minutes later the pair were still no nearer de-tangling the lights, and in fact somehow they'd managed to wind a large portion of the lights around Draco's leg.

"Well, this is just great," Draco snapped. "Instead of decorating the tree, we're decorating me. I can just imagine going into work tomorrow morning covered in fairy lights."

"Will you stop moaning," Hermione scolded. "Muggles do this every year without causing such a fuss."

"Muggles are crazy," Draco whispered under his breath as he tried to unwrap himself from the lights.

With Hermione focused on her end of the lights, Draco used a bit of wand less magic to sort the mess he was in, and thankfully five minutes later the lights were ready to be wrapped around the tree. And since Hermione still refused to allow them to use magic, that meant circling the tree several times as they snuggled the lights into the branches. Once the lights were on the tree, Hermione used magic to get them working, and then she spent another few minutes altering their positions so that there were lights everywhere.

"See, wasn't that fun," Hermione grinned as she took a step back to check that the lights were sitting perfectly.

"It's not what I would call it," Draco countered. "And we're not finished, are we?"

"Of course not," Hermione laughed, dragging the box of decorations closer to them. "Now we hang the baubles."

"One at a time?" Draco asked with a grimace, looking at the size of the tree and the amount of baubles Hermione had in her box. By his estimation it would take them nearly an hour to get the tree looking anywhere near decent.

"That's the muggle way," Hermione beamed, picking up several decorations and neatly hanging them on their tree.

Rolling his eyes, Draco picked up several decorations of his own to start hanging on the tree. After a couple of minutes he was well and truly bored, but he didn't complain as one glance at Hermione showed how much she was enjoying herself. She was humming merrily as she hung baubles on the tree, and as long as his wife was enjoying herself, Draco was happy.

"It's perfect," Hermione gushed almost fifty minutes later as she hung the last bauble.

"It is pretty impressive," Draco conceded. Thanks to Hermione's perfectionist tendencies, every bauble was hung perfectly and several times she'd actually repositioned things he'd hung.

"Now for the star," Hermione announced, plucking the final decoration from the box.

"And how do you suggest I get that up there without magic?" Draco asked as his wife handed him the star.

"We got the lights up," Hermione pointed out. "You reached the top then."

"With some help," Draco confessed. Since he was taller than Hermione, he'd placed the lights at the top of the tree, but he hadn't told his wife that he'd used magic to aid him.

"Draco, I said no wands," Hermione scolded.

"I used wand-less magic," Draco argued. "But what choice did I have? I'm not exactly short, but this tree must be three or four inches taller than me."

"I guess," Hermione conceded. Draco was actually over six foot tall, but he was right and tree did tower over him somewhat. "I don't suppose it will hurt to use a tiny bit of magic."

"Thank Merlin for that," Draco muttered, pulling his wand out of his back pocket and using it to levitate the star to the top of the tree.

"Now, it's perfect," Hermione said, wrapping her arm around Draco's waist. "Thank you for helping me."

"How could I refuse you, it is Christmas after all," Draco chuckled, dropping a kiss to the top of his wife's head.

"Now, I thought you might like to practice your unwrapping skills," Hermione purred, smirking up at her husband. "You don't want to be rusty come the big day, do you?"

"But what would I unwrap?" Draco asked, a half smile tugging at his lips.

"I'm sure we could think of something," Hermione replied silkily, toying with the top button on her blouse.

"I'm sure we could," Draco agreed, gently pulling Hermione into his arms and knocking her hands away from her buttons. "Behave yourself Mrs Malfoy, I'm the one doing the unwrapping," he scolded with a chuckle, lowering his lips over hers.

Ten minutes later, Hermione was completely and utterly unwrapped and lying naked on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.

"Maybe doing things the muggle way isn't so bad after all," Draco mused as he joined Hermione on the floor and they made love under the twinkling lights of the freshly decorated Christmas tree.

* * *

A week after the tree had gone up, Hermione returned to the manor following a shopping trip with her friend, Ginny Potter, with her Christmas shopping finished. Eager to get everything wrapped, she set everything up on the long table in her and Draco's library, which was where her husband found her when he arrived home.

"Ooh presents," Draco cooed, lifting up a box with his name on and giving it a shake.

"Stop that or you won't get anything," Hermione scolded, taking the neatly wrapped gift away from her husband. "Sometimes you are like a big kid."

"I just like presents," Draco replied with a laugh.

"Spoiled git," Hermione teased. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that if you're bad, you don't get presents."

"But being good is so boring," Draco pouted, leaning over the back of Hermione's chair and gently pressing his lips to her cheek. "Being bad is so much more fun," he whispered in her ear. "And I can be very bad."

"Don't I just know it," Hermione muttered as her husband's hand snaked down her body and slipped into the waistband of her trousers.

"Maybe I should be very bad right here and now," Draco suggested, nibbling at Hermione's ear. "You know how I love you spread over a table."

"Not now," Hermione said, batting her husband's hand away. "I've still got presents to wrap."

"That'll only take a few seconds," Draco argued. "A few flicks of your wand and you'll be done."

"Haven't I already told you, I don't use magic when it comes to Christmas," Hermione scolded. "I'm wrapping the presents by hand."

"This is wrapped by hand?" Draco questioned, picking up the present he'd been holding earlier and scrutinising it closely. The gift was perfectly wrapped in deep green paper, complete with a large silver bow, and there wasn't any slight lump or bump in the paper.

"You think I can't wrap that neatly?" Hermione chuckled. "Sit and watch."

Taking the seat next to his wife, Draco watched in amazement as Hermione wrapped the next parcel just as neatly as all the ones she'd already done. Her judgement in how much paper to use was perfect, and she was able to neatly join together the paper without creating any unsightly lumps. Although to be fair, Draco wasn't sure why he was so shocked by Hermione's ability to wrap a perfect present as everything his wife did was perfection, or as close to perfection as she could get.

"Is there anything you can't do?" he asked as Hermione finished her final present and began to sort them into two piles, one for the family and the other for her friends.

"Plenty," Hermione laughed. "But you know me, when I do something, I like to do it to the best of my ability."

"And that is something I very much appreciate in the bedroom," Draco joked.

"Only in the bedroom?" Hermione teased. "In that case, I'll stop doing my best elsewhere."

"Don't you dare," Draco retorted. "I appreciate your skills everywhere. Especially on the library table," he added hopefully.

"Since it's the season of giving, I'll let you have what you want," Hermione chuckled, using magic to clear the table and hopping onto it.

"I won't be the only one getting what I want," Draco promised, grinning at Hermione before he connected their lips and proceeded to give them both what they wanted on the library table.

* * *

The week before Christmas, Hermione once again returned to the manor laden down with bags. Only this time she didn't have presents nestled inside them. Her bags were filled with the ingredients necessary for her to spend the afternoon in the kitchen, rustling up festive treats for the family. At one point, she had offered to make Christmas dinner for the family, but Narcissa had politely explained that the house elves might be offended to be replaced on such an important day.

A few years ago, Hermione might have argued the point, but these days her views on house elves had changed. After trying to fight for the creatures freedom, she'd been forced to accept that most elves didn't want freedom. The majority of elves loved their families and wouldn't dream of abandoning them. So instead of freedom, Hermione had fought to ensure that elves were treated with respect and had rights of their own. And these days, she honestly believed that house elves were more respected than they'd been before. As for the Malfoy elves, she knew for a fact they were all treated exceptionally well, and she was also aware that every elf in the house loved the family and wanted nothing more to serve the Malfoys for as long as they lived.

Even though Hermione had agreed to leave the Christmas dinner to the elves, she hadn't been able to resist the idea of spending an afternoon in the kitchen, so when she'd been shopping she'd bought everything she would need to whip up some festive treats for her family. And surely the elves wouldn't mind her stealing the kitchen for one afternoon.

With her bags bursting with festive goodies, Hermione headed down to the large kitchen which dominated one corner of the ground floor. Hermione had only visited the kitchen on a handful of occasions, and she knew that the second she appeared, elves would appear wanting to help her. And sure enough, the second she set foot in the kitchen, three elves appeared at her side, all eager to help the new mistress in the manor.

"I just want to borrow the kitchen for a few hours," she informed the elves.

"Borrow?" Mistie, the head elf, squeaked.

"I want to use the kitchen," Hermione clarified. "I'm going to make some mince pies, and some cookies and some cakes."

"Mistie and the others can do that Miss Hermione," Mistie said. "We can make you anything you wish."

"I'm sure you can, Mistie," Hermione said, smiling at the little house elf. "And I'm sure whatever you made would be delicious. But I want to do some cooking myself. You can all take the afternoon off."

"Off," Mistie squeaked as the other elves made similar surprised gasps.

"Yes," Hermione confirmed with a nod. "Take the afternoon off. It's an order."

Hermione didn't actually like issuing orders to the elves, but she knew it was the only way she was going to get any peace. If she didn't send them out of the kitchen, they would be under her feet, trying to help all afternoon, and Hermione wanted to spend the afternoon doing her own baking.

"As you wish, Miss Hermione," Mistie said stiffly, nodding to the other elves to obey their new mistress.

As the elves slunk out of the kitchen, Hermione did feel slightly guilty for making them leave their domain. However, as she unpacked her bags, she soon got caught up in the excitement of spending the afternoon baking. As a child, Hermione often used to bake Christmas goodies with her mother and it was one of her favourite restive memories. It was only once everything was unpacked that Hermione realised she had no idea where anything was kept in the large kitchen.

"Mistie," she called, summoning back the head elf.

"Miss Hermione," Mistie said, popping up in front of Hermione.

"I don't know where anything is," Hermione admitted. "Could you show me where everything is kept?"

All the time offering to take over the baking, Mistie showed Hermione where to find everything she would need. Once she had everything, she knew she could find anything she might have forgotten about, Hermione once again dismissed the elf and set about baking up a storm. First came gingerbread men and spiced cranberry cookies, followed by mince pies, and then finally a batch of cranberry and cinnamon cupcakes.

Hermione was just lifting the cupcakes out of the oven when a clearly baffled Draco appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Baking," Hermione answered with a smile. "I've just got to finish my decorating."

"Why are you baking?" Draco asked. "And what have you done with the elves?"

"I gave them the afternoon off," Hermione admitted. "And I'm baking because I like to do it. Do you know, I haven't set foot in a kitchen since I married you?"

"And that's a bad thing?" Draco questioned with an arched eyebrow. Personally, he'd never seen the appeal of cooking and baking when the house elves were in their element doing such things.

"I can't say I've missed it too much," Hermione conceded. She did like to cook, but she had to admit it was nice not to have to think about meals as if the elves weren't cooking for them at home, she and Draco tended to dine out. "But I do love my festive baking. And you like my mince pies. You said so last year."

"I did," Draco said, licking his lips as he recalled the delicious warm mince pies Hermione had given him last Christmas.

"Do you want to help me decorate the cakes and cookies?" Hermione asked, turning back to her counter full of baked goods.

"The muggle way?" Draco checked.

"Of course," Hermione replied with a nod. "What other way is there?"

"Magic," Draco countered. "You are a witch, Hermione."

"I was also raised as a muggle," Hermione retorted. "And as I keep saying, I like to do Christmas the muggle way. Get used to it Draco, as it won't be changing. I will be doing Christmas this way every year."

"Even when we have a child?" Draco asked, leaning against the kitchen counter and watching Hermione make the icing for the gingerbread men and cookies.

"Especially when we have a child," Hermione replied. "Our child will help us decorate the tree, and I'm definitely bringing them down to the kitchen to help me bake."

"I'm sure the elves are going to love that," Draco muttered sarcastically. "When I asked poor Mistie where you were, she nearly burst into tears when she told me you were down here."

"The elves will get used to it," Hermione insisted, even though she did feel bad for upsetting the tiny creature she was so fond of.

"I do know how you can make it up to them," Draco offered.

"How?" Hermione asked, eager for a way to make it up to the elf.

"Leave them the tidying up," he replied, looking around at the mess Hermione had gotten the kitchen into.

"I can't do that," Hermione gasped. She was aware that she wasn't exactly the tidiest of people when it came to using the kitchen, and the thought of leaving such a mess for someone else to clean up appalled her.

"Yes, you can," Draco insisted. "Finish up here, and then we'll call for Mistie. I guarantee, when you ask her to clean up she'll be thrilled. All the elves will be."

Not having any intention of leaving the cleaning up to the elves, Hermione finished up her decorating. After icing her gingerbread men and cookies, she whipped up some vanilla buttercream and decorated her cupcakes. She then finished things off by dusting her mince pies with sugar and placing everything on a couple of ornate three tier cake stands.

"Delicious," Draco declared, stealing a mince pie and wolfing it down in two bites.

"See, some things are best the muggle way," Hermione said with a smile.

"Maybe," Draco conceded. "I guess I could get used to a muggle Christmas."

"It's not that different from a wizarding Christmas," Hermione pointed out. "There's just some things I like to do for myself, rather than using magic and elves."

"Speaking of elves, I think it's time you gave them their Christmas present," Draco said.

"Tidying up the kitchen, is not a present," Hermione protested.

"It is for them," Draco countered. "Mistie," he called, summoning the elf.

"Master Draco," Mistie greeted with a smile. "Miss Hermione."

"I know this is very rude of me, Mistie, but do you want to tidy the kitchen?" Hermione asked when her husband nudged her in the ribs.

As she gazed around the kitchen, Mistie's eyes widened and at first Hermione thought she was offended. But then she turned to Hermione and beamed widely at her.

"Thank you Miss Hermione," she breathed excitedly. "I'll get going right away."

As Mistie summoned the other elves, and they all let out delighted cries at the state of the kitchen, Draco wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist and steered her towards the kitchen door.

"Told you they'd be happy," he chuckled. "You just made their day."

"I guess," Hermione muttered, taking one final look at the thrilled elves before Draco closed the door and escorted her away from the kitchen.

"How about we see if Mother and Father are free, and have some tea with them?" Draco suggested. "We can try some of the goodies you've whipped up. Although be warned, if they're all as good as your mince pies, father will want baked treats all year round."

"I'm sure the elves will let me into their kitchen once in a while," Hermione said. "In fact, I think this might become a new tradition. Once a month, I should spent an afternoon in the kitchen."

"We'll see what the elves say," Draco cautioned. "They might not be able to stand you in their domain once a month."

Agreeing that maybe they would have to work the elves up into allowing her into the kitchen every month, Hermione accompanied her husband in joining his parents for afternoon tea. As Draco predicted her baking went down a storm with Lucius, and he made it clear that he would be happy to try anything she made whenever she managed to get into the kitchens.

And as for doing Christmas the muggle way, it soon became a tradition at Malfoy Manor. The very next year, Narcissa allowed Hermione to decorate the entire manor the muggle way, and she thoroughly enjoyed helping her daughter-in-law decorate the several tress which were dotted around the manor. Narcissa even started to help Hermione in the kitchen, and for years to come the two Malfoy witches spent one afternoon every December in the kitchen at the manor. The result was delicious festive goodies for the entire family to enjoy, and a mess for the house elves to merrily clean up.

**The End. **


End file.
